This Foot Long Cannoli Is New York City's Latest Smash Hit

It seems like an all-too-obvious punchline that an area called Little Italy would serve New York City's biggest cannoli, but the chefs at Gelso & Grand have totally leaned into the joke. Their dessert is laughably large — almost a foot long — and served with a mallet, so dinner guests are literally hammering away at their tables all evening long. "You really don't know how else to attack it!" says Catherine Schimenti, the restaurant's consulting pastry chef. Her credentials read like a rap sheet of NYC's most popular spots: Balthazar, Gramercy Tavern, Per Se, Craftsteak.

John Komar

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Schimenti's the brains behind the hit cannoli, though it was one of Gelso & Grand's owners, Nima Garos, that originally dreamed up the concept of creating a giant Italian pastry. His main request: that it be totally untraditional. "The first cannoli I made for Nima had the usual ricotta and chocolate chip filling, and he was like 'Bring it up a notch!'," says Schimenti. So she replaced the ricotta with one of her favorite flavors — matcha — but kept the classic chocolate chips then added a completely different combo — vanilla cream mixed with Reese's Pieces — to the other side of the dessert. The creams are layered, too. The matcha side is stuffed with whole Oreos, and the vanilla side is dotted with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

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Then there's the shell itself, which is equally unconventional. It's made from super-thin Italian waffle cookies called pizzelle. Schimenti wraps and cools them around a rolling pin to hold the shape. "Regular cannoli shells are fried, and you can still kind of taste that, even with the filling," Schimenti says. "This is more like a wafer ice cream cone."

John Komar

The dessert debuted a couple months ago, on Valentine's Day. Schimenti says it made sense — the cannoli's meant for two — but it's developed a following totally separate from the lovey-dovey holiday. Chefs still churn out close to 30 every day, and they've even created a hashtag just for it: #smashme, to match the tiny flag that skewers the shell.

Versions 2.0 and 3.0 are already in the works. "I think the day we launched, Nima was asking about the next flavor," laughs Schimenti. She's playing with a gelato filling and a birthday cake flavor, but honestly, as long as it's served with a mallet, we'll eat whatever she comes up with next.